Mr Trelawny, who turned 41 on Sunday, was arrested by immigration officials on
Thursday as he appeared at the opening night of a festival run by the
Bulawayo Music Academy, a charitable organisation aimed at widening access
to the arts.
He was admitted to hospital over the weekend after he dislocated his shoulder
by slipping on a wet floor while in an un-electrified police cell, and has
remained there under police guard since.
On Monday he was taken from hospital to Bulawayo Magistrates Court where the
magistrate appeared to be sympathetic to his cause.
Bruce McDonald, one of the event’s organisers, said the magistrate said it was “not
the responsibility” of Mr Trelawny to arrange a Temporary Employment
Permit (TEP), but that of the music academy.
He said Mr Trelawny’s lack of permit was simply an oversight, and that other
performers from the UK had them.
“Somebody slipped up I am afraid. I have discovered he should have had a
TEP,” he said.
Mr Trelawny, a frequent visitor to Zimbabwe, was acting as an unpaid narrator
for a performance of Song of the Carnivores, a British Council-funded
production which brought together over 500 children from 10 schools to
perform at the Bulawayo City Hall.
According to his friend Judith Todd, the daughter of former liberal Rhodesian
prime minister Sir Garfield Todd who visited him in hospital for his
birthday on Sunday, he was determined not to let his experience prevent him
from returning to the country.
“Petroc only had praise for everyone who he has been in contact with him
since he got to Bulawayo,” he said.
“He does not want to be deported as he wants to come back here again and
again.
“He was in good spirits and he is comfortable. He is in a single ward
with two very nice young policemen guarding him. He is being well treated.”
Speaking from Shropshire yesterday, Mr Trelawny’s elder brother Andrew, said
he was “praying that he’s safe” and he only heard of his arrest
when his daughter read the news online.
“He’s absolutely passionate about classical music and he loves going
there to work with the kids,” he said.
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